1 Executive Summary

This report examines the data from the Sustainable Development Report within the SAGE framework. It will assemble the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into different elements of the Recoupling Dashboard. It will delve into the performance of the G20 countries, the correlation between every SAGE element and the posterior comparison with the indexes from the Recoupling Dashboard. The main findings are:

• The positive correlation of Solidarity and Agency.

• The stratification of Material Gains.

• The cleavage between sustainability and development in Environmental Sustainability.

2 Introduction

This report will use the data from the Sustainable Development Report to develop the ideas of the Recoupling Dashboard. The main reason is to shed light on a new dimension of development, outlining the interdependence of economic prosperity, social wealth, and environmental sustainability. The main components of the dashboard are part of the acronym SAGE, which establishes Agency as the possibility of shaping own’s destiny through determination and will, Solidarity as the relevance of social groups, Material Gains as a measure of economic well-being, and Environmental Sustainability to observe the degree that development are compatible with natural resources.

This report will use the Sustainable Development Goals and incorporate them according to the SAGE framework. Some SDGs will be grouped and displayed as part of Agency, Solidarity, Material Gains, and Environmental Sustainability.

The report’s structure will be the following: It will first give a brief explanation of the SDGs used for each component of the SAGE framework, then it will show the plot and some insights from it. Afterward, it will use the data from the Recoupling Dashboard to correlate both SAGE components. There is a second report with interactive plots, which will further develop some of the analysis here but look at individual countries to display tangible examples or outliers from the plots.

3 Analyzing the SDR data

3.1 Solidarity

The components of Solidarity are SDG 5 (Gender Equality), 10 (Reduced Inequalities), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). They represent a strong signal of community and joint action.

In this plot we will see the mean of solidarity for G20 countries in comparison with the world average.

There was no available data on Solidarity for Saudi Arabia. As a result, we decided to leave it alongside other G20 countries.

And the performance of solidarity for G20 countries in comparison with the G20 average.

*There was no available data on Solidarity for Saudi Arabia. As a result, we decided to leave it alongside other G20 countries.

3.2 Agency

Agency is composed by SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), 4 (Quality Education), 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), and 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions).

Looking at agency, this plot outlines the Agency for the G20 countries in comparison with the world average.

And the performance of Agency for G20 countries in comparison with the G20 average.

3.3 Material Gains

Material Gains is composed by SDGs 1 (No Poverty), 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), and 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production). Differently from the “Material Gains” from the SAGE framework, the SDG does not rely solely on GDP per capita, so it is not necessarily restricted to material wealth.

The Material Gains index is not a measure in terms of economic performance and its subsequent redistribution (GDP or GDP per capita). It is the transformation of some of the SDGs into a scale, which can later compared with the Material Gains framework from the Recoupling Dashboard (GDP per capita) and see how they perform.

At Material Gains, the following plot will highlight how G20 countries perform in comparison with the world average.

3.4 Environmental Sustainability

Environmental Sustainability is composed by the SDGs 13 (Climate Action), 14 (Life Below Water), and 15 (Life on Land).

Looking at environment, the plot sheds light on how G20 countries perform in comparison with the world average.

The following plot sheds light on the best performers in the environmental index from the SDGs in comparison with the world average.

Lastly, the ones that fared worst in comparison with the world average.

4 The correlation between the SDR elements

4.1 Solidarity and Agency

The first plot that will be analysed is the correlation between Solidarity and Agency.

The correlation between both indexes tends to be high. Lima de Miranda and Snower highlighted that differences in the levels of solidarity and agency may be associated with differences in how societies behave (2022, p. 6).

• Countries are “Coherent” if solidarity is high and “Fragmented” if solidarity is low.

• Countries are “Empowered” if agency is high and “Disempowered” if it is low.

It is possible to observe that most countries figure between “fragmented and disempowered” (quadrant III with the faded red) and “coherent and empowered” (quadrant I with the light red). That contributes to the finding that the correlation is high, which means that countries with high numbers on one axis are more likely to have good numbers on the other one. Interestingly, there are almost no countries on quadrant IV (coherent and disempowered) and a few that orbit on quadrant II (fragmented and empowered).

In the following plot, we will continue to examine the correlation between solidarity and agency under the lens of income groups. It is possible to observe that most high-income countries are “empowered and coherent.” Notably, a low-income country (Tajikistan) is in the first quadrant. Furthermore, quadrant II is entirely composed of Upper middle-income countries besides two high-income countries (Mauritius and Panama) and three low-middle-income countries (Morocco, Egypt, and Sri Lanka). That feature may relate to high levels of inequality that corrodes solidarity while allowing a degree of agency - even if low, there can still be social mobility in extremely unequal countries.

As expected, most low-income countries remain in the third quadrant, making the exception of Tajikistan, among other high solidarity and agency countries, more exceptional.

Here we will observe two plots that even if somewhat similar, there are differences that are worth noting.

In the first one, the presence of “Europe & Central Asia” in the first quadrant is remarkable. Besides Romania, all European countries are “Empowered and Coherent”. Sub-Saharan Africa stays in the third quadrant and most of Middle East and North Africa/Latin America and Caribean/South Asia flutuates among the center of all quadrants.

In this plot, we can see that the OECD countries stay above the line that represents the Agency mean. Eastern Europe and Central Asia are also entirely in the first quadrant. The only African country above the Agency mean line is Mauritius, followed by Cabo Verde and Sao Tome and Principe.

4.2 Material Gains and Solidarity

In this plot, we can observe the majority of countries divided between the first and third plot. The main finding of the plot may not be necessarily the correlation between both indexes, but the fact that there is almost no country with high level of solidarity without a secure material well-being.

• Countries are “Coherent” if solidarity is high and “Fragmented” if solidarity is low.

• Countries are “Materially well-off” if Material Gains is high and “Materially deprived” if it is low.

It is worth to observe that almost no country that is fragmented has high levels on Material Gains. There is also a cleavage within solidarity, as there are a relevant number of countries in the fourth quadrant that are materially well-off while displaying a low level of solidarity.

4.3 Material Gains and Agency

The correlation between Material Gains and Agency also outlines a distribution mainly present on the first and third quadrants. Following the previously established criteria of:

• Countries are “Materially well-off” if Material Gains is high and “Materially deprived” if it is low.

• Countries are “Empowered” if agency is high and “Disempowered” if it is low.

Thus, there is a strong correlation between being “Empowered and well-off” or “Disempowered and Materially deprived”. There are few exceptions on the second and fourth quadrant, however, most of them are barely above the mean. Moreover, there is a cluster in the first quadrant and dispersed countries in the third, which can also signify that the inequality of opportunities reinforces itself among the least well-off.

4.4 Environment and Material Gains

• Countries are “Materially well-off” if Material Gains is high and “Materially deprived” if it is low.

• Countries are “Sustainable” if environmental sustainability is high and “Unsustainable” if it is low.

In the plot, the most notable information is the absence of countries in the third quandrant, denoting that there are few countries with very low levels of Environmental sustainability and material gains. Besides one country, most countries in the third quadrant are close to the mean. Most of them are divided between the second and fourth quadrant. Furthermore, the countries with the highest levels of sustainability did not obtained high levels of Material Gains.

4.5 Environmental Sustainability and Solidarity

The correlation between Solidarity and Environment seems to follow a negative inclination. Ironically, the country with the highest degree of environmental sustainability has an outstanding low level of solidarity.

• Countries are “Coherent” if solidarity is high and “Fragmented” if solidarity is low.

• Countries are “Sustainable” if environmental sustainability is high and “Unsustainable” if it is low.

Even thought the plot looks incredibly dispersed, it is possible to identify a few trends. First, there are few countries that are “Sustainable and Coherent”. The countries with the highest level of sustainability are also likely to have low levels of solidarity. Second, the quadrant with the fewest entries is the fourth, which are countries “Unsustainable and Fragmented”. Third, different from the previous plots, there are a large number of countries in the second quadrant (“Coherent and Unsustainable”).

4.6 Environment and Agency

The correlation between Agency and Environment is also dispersed, like the other plots involving Environment.

• Countries are “Sustainable” if environmental sustainability is high and “Unsustainable” if it is low.

• Countries are “Empowered” if agency is high and “Disempowered” if agency is low.

Countries with the highest values in agency tends to have low levels of sustainability. It is possible to observe that the dispersion is higher in the second (“Empowered and Unsustainable”) and fourth (“Disempowered and Sustainable”) quadrants.

Meanwhile, high levels in environmental sustainability are not necessarily correlated with high degrees of agency. The minority of countries belong to the third quadrant, “Unsustainable and Disempowered”. To understand better the low correlation between both factors, we will employ interactive graphs to observe how individual countries perform.

5 Analyzing the Recoupling Dashboard

That section will use the data from the SDGs in comparison with the values from the SAGE database to evaluate the connection between both indexes.

5.1 Solidarity

Correlation appears to be high. Greater dispersion in the middle of the curve.

5.2 Agency

Correlation seems to be high as well, but there is an evenn further concentration of entries in highest levels of Agency.

5.3 Material Gains

The correlation is positive and seems to point out that there is a connection between high GDP per capita and the objectives of the SDGs.

However, the curve is bends towards the right-end due to the presence of outliers with extremely high levels of income per capita. Thus, it appears that inequality may have a role in halting the development of countries. The distribution is stratified and follows a progression with small increases in GDP per capital also signifying a better performance in the SDGs.

5.4 Environmental Sustainability

The high dispersion observed in the plot comparing the SDGs assembled in the Environmental Sustainability index and the Environmental Protection Index (EPI) will be further discussed in the report with innteractive graphs.